Napoleon Bonaparte's will

NAPOLEON.
This
15th April, 1821, at Longwood, Island of St. Helena.
This is my Testament, or act of my last will.

1.
I DIE in the Apostolical Roman religion, in the bosom
of which I was born more than fifty years since.

2.
It is my wish that my ashes may repose on the banks
of the Seine, in the midst of the French people, whom
I have loved so well.

3. I have always had reason to be pleased with my
dearest wife, Maria Louisa. I retain for her, to my
last moment, the most tender sentiments-I beseech
her to watch, in order to preserve, my son from the
snares which yet environ his infancy.

4. I recommend to my son never to forget that he was
born a French prince, and never to allow himself to
become an instrument in the hands of the triumvirs
who oppress the nations of Europe: he ought never
to fight against France, or to injure her in any manner;
he ought to adopt my motto: "Everything for the French
people."

5.
I die prematurely, assassinated by the English oligarchy
and its tool. The English nation will not be slow
in avenging me.

6.
The two unfortunate results of the invasions of France,
when she had still so many resources, are to be attributed
to the treason of Marmont, Augereau, Talleyrand, and
La Fayette. I forgive them--May the posterity of France
forgive them as I do.

7.
I thank my good and most excellent mother, the Cardinal,
my brothers, Joseph, Lucien, Jerome, Pauline, Caroline,
Julie, Hortense, Catarine, Eugene, for the interest
they have continued to feel for me. I pardon Louis
for the libel he published in 1820: it is replete
with false assertions and falsified documents.

8. I disavow the "Manuscript of St. Helena," and other
works, under the title of Maxims, Sayings, &c., which
persons have been pleased to publish for the last
six years. Such are not the rules which have guided
my life. I caused the Duc d'Enghien to be arrested
and tried, because that step was essential to the
safety, interest, and honour of the French people,
when the Count d'Artois was maintaining, by his own
confession, sixty assassins at Paris. Under similar
circumstances, I should act in the same way.

II.

1.
I bequeath to my son the boxes, orders, and other
articles; such as my plate, field-bed, saddles, spurs,
chapel-plate, books, linen which I have been accustomed
to wear and use, according to the list annexed

(A).
It is my wish that this slight bequest may he dear
to him, as coming from a father of whom the whole
world will remind him.

2.
I bequeath to Lady Holland the antique Cameo which
Pope Pius VI. gave me at Tolentino.

3.
I bequeath to Count Montholon, two millions of francs,
as a proof of my satisfaction for the filial attentions
be has paid me during six years, and as an indemnity
for the loses his residence at St. Helena has occasioned
him.

4.
I bequeath to Count Bertrand, five hundred thousand
francs.

5.
I bequeath to Marchand, my first valet-de-chambre;
four hundred thousand francs. The services he has
rendered me are those of a friend; it is my wish that
he should marry the widow sister, or daughter, of
an officer of my old Guard.